Indian batters' struggles against spin bowling continued as Bangladesh held their nerve to pull off a four-wicket consolation win in the third and final women's T20 International on Thursday. (More Cricket News)
India produced another underwhelming batting performance to end up with 102 for nine after optin💛g to bat.
It seemed Bangladesh, who could not chase 96 in the p🐽revious game, had taken the self destructing route again but managed to cross the line in 18.1 overs.
Opener Shamima Sultana (42 off 46) held the inꦐnings together ཧfor Bangladesh.
India sealed the series 2-1 but their performance left a lot to beꦜ desired. The three- match ODI series between the two ꦉteams will begin here on July 16.
Batting on spin friendly wickets was the biggest let down as the batters lacked the firepower to put pressure on the slow bowlers. Barring skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, none of the battꦅers coul💝d clear the fence in the three games.
The performance of rookie off-spinner Minnu Mani was among the few positive stori🔯es to have come out for India.
When the new head coach takes charge of the team, he will have plenty of work to do before the side return💦s 🌞to play the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh next year.
Earlier, Harm⛄anpreet struck a solid 40 off 41 balls before a batting collapse in the death overs saw India lose their last six wickets for 11 runs.
Leggie Rabeya Khan was the standout bowler for Bangladesh with three wickets for 16 runs in four overs. Off-spinner Sultana Khatun was impressive in the powerplay, removing the star openin✅g duo of Shafali Verma (11) and Smriti Mandhana (1).
The surface has proved to be "tricky" throug💮hout the low-scoring series and considering that, Harmanpreet opted to bat first.
Shafali and Ma🌱ndhana once again failed t🎃o provide a good start to leave India at 27 for two in six overs.
Mandhana got herself into an awkward position while trying to work one towards the leg side and ended up getting a leading edge with Bangladesh captain and keeper Niga🗹r Sultana doing the rest.
Shafali was caught at long on, failing t💝o clear the fence.
Jemimah Rodrigues (28 off 26) and Harmanpreet stitched a 45-run stand to take the innings forward before the former was stumped off leg-spinner Shorna Akter. Unlike the pr𓆏evious game, Jemimah showed positive intent in her innings and made good use of 🧜her feet against the spinners.
The lack of six-hitters in the squad was exposed again as Harmanpreet was the only one to have cleared the ropes. Once Harmanpreet💃 was stumped in the 17th over, wickets fell in a h🍒eap as Indian batters failed to get the required boundaries.